Trade unions in Kazakhstan
In 2007 the Central Asia Consortium Project coordinated by EI/ETUCE was launched with a view to promote changes in teachers trade unions in Central Asia from government functionaries to more democratic, independent, transparent, strong and sustainable organisations. The key objectives of workshops amongst others are to create good governance and transparency at all levels of organisation; to effectively address the problems of education in the era of market economy and decentralisation; to train the leaders to deal with the local government; to promote greater participation of women and young leaders in the decision-making process. The workshops provide the participants with the awareness that the trade union movement has a wide scope of responsibilities and functions. Participants are also taught to identify problems in education and how to pursue them with the relevant authorities. The percentage of women participants in all the programmes is very high.
The Trade Union of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan (KTUESW) came into existence more than 90 years ago and brings together education staff of preschool, primary, secondary, VET and higher education, including researchers and students. On the whole, the trade union represents 540, 000 members.
In 2014 the Kazakh government adopted a new law on "trade unions". Aliya Abieva, KTUESW International Secretary confirms that the law provides trade unions with many opportunities According to her, the key points of the new legislation are the structuring of the trade union movement and a clear delimitation of responsibilities of territorial and sectoral trade unions. The new legislation makes provisions for trade unions to become involved in the development of regulatory legal acts. Thus, KTUESW has now the possibility to take influence on legal acts of the Education Ministry that regulate the procedure of certification for teachers and which determine deadlines and training procedures, working hours and hours of rest. The law is intended to strengthen the Kazakh social dialogue system, the so-called system of 'social partnership', as one of the main tools to overcome the antagonistic contradictions between employers and employees."
